HERMISTON — Volunteers stood beside containers of roast turkey dinners with all the trimmings Thursday, Nov. 25, Thanksgiving morning, minutes ahead of the Community Fellowship Dinner. Hundreds of meals were ready for distribution. To get them, all anyone had to do was drive up and reach out their hands.

It was an event that was emotional for some of the volunteers, including Heather Smart, who said she and others were working “for the love of the community.”

Smart, who was in charge of the kitchen, said she has been working at the event since 2014.

“I was doing nothing for Thanksgiving, and I wanted to do something,” she said. “I felt the need, and I looked for something until I found this.”

As a head cook at Good Shepherd Health Care System, her skills and experience were useful to this cause.

“It makes me feel better as a person in the community,” she said. “It’s fulfilling to see that we’re helping so many people.”

As tears welled up in her eyes, Smart explained she was immensely touched by the outpouring of donations and effort that made this event possible. It would not be feasible without many caring, loving people, she said; it is a testament to the goodness of the community.

Another volunteer, Ryan Greene, said he was doing this work because he enjoys helping people.

“A lot of people are lonely, especially if they don’t have family around or if they are in a position in which they don’t have money for food,” he said.

Community Fellowship Dinner Chairman Gary Humphreys explained the history of the event, dating back to the early 1980s. It started, he said, with families who were eating meals in an apartment building when it dawned on them that they were eating alone and that it would be better to share a meal together.

In 1982, around 20 of the apartment residents got together for dinner. They enjoyed the experience so much, they wanted to keep doing it, Humphreys said. What is more, he said, they wanted to invite others. The idea caught on, snowballing to create bigger and bigger turnouts.

As Humphreys told the story, participation for the community dinners grew so much, they needed additional space. They moved to a local church, then a senior center and, finally, Hermiston High School.

The school, which has held the event ever since, is an excellent facility, he said. It has a large kitchen for food preparation, and they are helped by school staff.

COVID-19 threw a wrench into the gears, Humphreys said. No longer was it safe to bring the community together for people to enjoy face-to-face interaction. Instead, he said, the event shifted so volunteers were preparing food and handing it to people as they passed by in cars.

The dinner provided 1,300 meals in 2020 for Thanksgiving and another 1,000 for Christmas, he said, and he expected the same amount this year. For this Thanksgiving, the meals used 1,000 pounds of turkey.

He said this was a mammoth undertaking, which was made possible by sponsors and volunteers. Subaru Corporation was a particularly generous donor, according to Humphreys, as it gave $9,000, which alone was more than the cost of the Thanksgiving meals.

Humphreys said the Thanksgiving dinner cost $6,000. Donations from companies and individuals made it possible to buy new equipment, including a trailer and maybe an oven, which would make the event more self-sufficient. No longer will community dinners need to “begging for and borrowing” materials to host their events, he said.

Any funds left over will go toward future dinners, he said, while senior centers and other groups in need get any leftover food.

In a normal year, according to Humphreys, around 150 volunteers are needed. This year was different, as there was no table service and cold meals were handed to passersby, so there was a need for only 50 volunteers.

Next year marks the 40th Community Fellowship Dinner. Humphreys said he expects 2022 to revert to regular times with the community meeting as they did pre-pandemic.

“We’ll do whatever is necessary to make that possible,” he said.